Posted by Fleabit Peanut Monkey on April 21, 2000 at 19:53:10:
In Reply to: Re: What's the strangest thing.... posted by nankerphelge on April 21, 2000 at 15:04:48:
Hey...why is sighting ME on the "strangest things" list?
I didn't realize that we had been to so many of the same shows. I'm not sure if I saw the 1st or 2nd show at RFK in '89...I know they did a great "Play With Fire...anyway, if that was the same night, I was at every show you were at except Buffalo! Although the '81 Journey bit was exactly the same in Philadelphia. It must have SUCKED to be them! They couldn't just blame the opening act slot, either, because people dug George Thorogood.
The strangest things I've seen at Stones shows...hmmm...first show, 25 summers ago, was also my first trip to the City of Brudderly Love and I was an awestruck young monkey. Outside the Spectrum there was some tension as The Man stomped on our vibes. Philadelphia police at the time were on a par with Mayor Daley's boys in Chicago. They were, to a man, 9 feet tall and completely encased in black leather. Some rode horses. Several rode motorcycles, and added to their gestapo getups black helmets with black visors. Scaaaaaaaaary. Out front was a big black bus with black windows, the ultimate intimidation...was it full of more gestapobots, or was it just the place they would drag your dead, beaten, bloody corpse to when you got out of line?
These Philly cops were fixtures of my first 3 Stones shows. One year, '78 I think, someone yelled "fuck you" at one of them from the supposed safety of the middle of a throng of people...he waded into the middle of the already-sardine-canned crowd on his motorcycle, grabbed the guy, and dragged him off.
Strangest thing onstage was definitely '94 VL opener, goathead guy on stilts chasing Mick, and wasn't there also a fire-breathing woman on stilts too? Mick always tries out some hilarious things the first show, like the cage for the NS opener. They usually try out some cool songs too. I couldn't understand why they didn't keep "Can't Get Next To You" in the setlist.
Unfortunately Sir S's first example - the putz yelling "play some oldies" - is a fixture at ALL Stones shows. I sat beside SS at the VL opener and heard the guy too. At MSG 3, one of the greatest shows they've EVER played, the same idiot was behind me. "I sure hope they play some old stuff" he groaned everytime the setlist got adventurous. Finally when they played "I Just Wanna Make Love To You" on the b-stage, I turned around and said "THERE! That's from 1954!" He had this blank look on his face. He was probably wondering why they were playing a Foghat song.